Fate's Injustices
by LosingNothing
Summary: To some people, the words "fate" and "karma" carrying more meaning than others. For a childhood friend of young prodigy Negi Springfeild this seems to be true as well. OC story, T for some minor cursing, please read and reveiw .
1. Chapter 1

Alright, so this is my first Negima Fan Fic, and just a few comments to make about it for clarity purpose. Dialogue in Italics is in english, otherwisde dialogue is japanese. This story starts just after the Spring Break arc and it is safe to assume that everything up to that point happened the way it does in the manga (Which is slightly different from the Anime but you should be able to catch the differences)

Enjoy

* * *

The child looked up at the familiar sign of Mahora Academy with a sigh, "_So, Negi, this is where you're working now, eh?_" Slinging his satchel over his shoulder and walking into the academy grounds he smirked and chuckled to himself, "_A teacher_ …"

* * *

The sun was going to be setting soon, as Negi wandered around the campus trying to find Asuna. She had been missing from their room and Negi was worried that something was wrong. However, much to Negi's relief, he soon found Asuna sitting by the fountain. She looked as though she was lost in her thoughts and barely seemed to notice Negi walk up to her, "Asuna-san, is something wrong? Asuna-san?"

Hearing his voice Asuna seemed to wake up, and then looking over at Negi took a minute to collect herself. "No, nothing's really wrong, I was just thinking about the spring trip." She paused for a moment, "A lot happened and I'm still sort of trying to figure it all out."

Negi looked a little down, "I'm sorry for the trip," then after a short pause continued, "I didn't mean you ruin your spring trip like that." This was followed by a quick bonk on Negi's head.

"Idiot, it isn't your fault that the events on the spring trip took place, so stop blaming yourself." She paused for a moment, and then added in a snide tone, "But then again, you probably aren't disappointed with the events, since you got three more partners out of it." 

Negi began blushing, "A-Asuna-san!" As Negi tried to think of a response, Konoka snuck up behind him. "T-That wasn't my intention! I-I never meant to make contracts with Nodoka-san, and Setsuna-san and Konoka-san! That- That was just how things turned out!"

"So, Negi-sensei, does that mean that you meant to make a contract with Asuna?" Negi spun around to see Konoka there and jumped back.

"K-K-Konoka!" Negi tried to explain himself, "N-No! T-That's not what I meant either! What I meant, or, what I'm trying to say is that-"

"Excuse me." Negi stopped talking and looked over to the person who had interrupted him. There was a child around Negi's age standing there. The child wore a plain white tee shirt, with a pair of short jeans. Around the child's neck was a necklace made out of fangs and around the child's right wrist was a silver bracelet. Taking the satchel off of their back, the child said, "Sorry to interrupt, but I have a deliver for Negi Springfeild."

As the child waded through the contents of their satchel there was a momentary pause, and then a loud, "Kyaa!" as Konoka rushed over to inspect the child closer. As she got right into the child's face she asked, "How old are you?"

Still going through the bag trying to find whatever the child was searching for, they answered, "Twelve or so." Then finding what they were looking for the child pulled out a letter and handed it to Negi, then taking out a pocket book asked, "Please sign here to verify that you received the letter."

With a slight nod as Negi stared at the child with a confused look he looked down at the letter, which was addressed to him from his sister, and signed verifying that he had received the letter, while Konoka continued on. "That's so cute, you're only twelve and working so hard! Shouldn't twelve year old girls be attending school though?"

The child paused, "I'm only going to say this once, so please listen carefully." Konoka stopped her close to harassing demeanor and stepped back as the child said, "I am NOT a girl." There was a short, awkward pause.

Then, with the impact of the words sinking in Konoka shouted, "No way! Your skin is way smoother than mine though!" She started rubbing the boy's cheek, and then rubbing his head added, "And your hairs really smooth and soft too!"

Now looking slightly aggravated as he unruffled his white hair, the boy replied, "There's a difference between having some features that some people might consider to be slightly feminine and being a girl."

The previously silent Asuna who had been observing the situation now interjected, "No matter how I look at you, you have to be a girl." The boy was about to respond to this when something suddenly clicked in Negi's head.

"Ser!" he shouted, "It's been a long time!" 

The boy smiled, "Here I was thinking you'd forgotten me, Negi. Your sis asked me to deliver that letter to you when I was picking up another delivery for Old Man Mahora." He looked at the two girls then said to Negi, "_You have some seriously weird students._"

Negi chuckled a sort of awkward chuckle, "_I guess you could say that._" Then, with the confused looks from Konoka and Asuna who didn't really understand the English, continued, "So you have another delivery here?"

The boy nodded, "Yep, want to tag along?" Negi nodded and the two began walking off towards the headmaster's office. After a brief moment of confused looks, Asuna and Konoka followed the two of them.

"So, you two know each other?" asked Asuna.

Negi nodded, "We met before I went off to magic school. Ser wandered into my home town one day and we would occasionally play together." The boy looked back at the two girls then at Negi.

"I going to guess from what I just heard and from what I heard from your conversation earlier that they know about your magic?" Looking slightly ashamed Negi nodded, "And they're your partners?" Another nod, this time with a face came from Negi. The boy just laughed, "_Nice job, Playboy,_" he said softly so only Negi could hear him. "So, what's your names?" the boy asked looking back.

"Isn't it proper to introduce yourself first?" asked Konoka.

"I'm not supposed to give out my name to strangers, though," retorted the boy in a wily tone.

Deciding not even to fight that battle, Konoka replied, "I'm Konoka Konoe and this is Asuna Kagurazaka." Asuna half nodded, still unsure whether or not to trust the boy that they had just met.

The boy smiled, "Nice to meet you, my name is Seraphim Merielle, or just Ser for short."

There was a pause for a moment and then Asuna said, "That sounds like a girl's name." Konoka nodded in agreement and the boy stumbled over as if pierced by an arrow.

Looking over at Negi with rather comical looking tears streaming from his eyes the boy said, "Negi, please help me convince them that I'm a boy!"

Negi looked down at his friend and then looked away saying, "I seem to remember a similar situation several years back involving someone getting free food." There was a loud "erk" sound that came from the boy as he stood up straight and started laughing to himself.

"Ah-ha-ha … I have absolutely no idea what you're referring to Negi …" Then after receiving rather awkward stares from the two girls behind him, Ser said, "Anyways, let's go deliver this package to the Headmaster."

* * *

As the group entered the headmaster's room, the headmaster who was sitting behind his desk looked up from his paperwork and seeing who had entered rushed over to embrace Ser. "Seraphim! It's been so long since you've come to see your grandfather! I was beginning to worry about my cute little granddaughter!"

Three quick, loud, thuds followed. "Dammit Old Man, for the last time I'm not your granddaughter!" Ser tossed the satchel at the still recovering headmaster, "The package is inside as always." Once again, however, Ser felt the cold stairs of Konoka and Asuna on his back, sending a shiver down his spine.

At this point Konoka spoke up, "Grandpa, if Ser's your granddaughter, does that mean …?"

The headmaster nodded, "Yes, Seraphim is your long lost little sister, Konoka." At this point from across the room flew a rather large book that hit the headmaster square on his head.

"First of all, I'm a boy. A B-O-Y. Second, I never agreed to the adoption, you senile old fart." Ser was searching through the Headmaster's drawers as he spoke.

Negi looked a little surprised, "The Headmaster offered to adopt you?"

Still looking through the drawers, the boy replied, "Not exactly, his son did a few years back after I did a delivery for him." Then paused for a moment in the middle of his rummaging, looked up at Konoka, then looked back down and said, "I knew I had heard the Konoe name somewhere before."

Looking slightly interested, Negi asked as Ser continued rummaging through the drawer, "Why didn't you accept their kind offer?"

Finally finding what he was looking for, Ser pulled out a pair of silver scissors from the drawer and began walking over to the mirror on the wall. Once he arrived at the mirror, however, he was assaulted again by the headmaster, "No, don't just cut your hair like this my cute little granddaughter!"

Two more loud thuds followed and Ser responded, "Because they offered to adopt me as a daughter." Ser was about to start cutting his hair when Konoka grabbed the scissors from his hands.

She was smiling, "Let me cut your hair! Pleease!" Ser looked back up at her with rather cold eyes and while Konoka looked down with begging eyes, "Please! I always wanted a little sister!"

Shaking slightly and clenching his fist, Ser responded in a rather choked back, angry tone, "Please put the scissors down and let me go back to cutting my hair." Konoka looked saddened but Ser's response.

"Actually, Konoka, can you please leave the room for a few moments? Seraphim and I apparently have something to discuss privately," said the Headmaster who was now sitting behind his desk reading a letter that he had received.

Giving a curious look at her grandfather, then at Ser, Konoka left the room scissors in hand saying, "I'll give you your haircut later, Ser-chan!"

As Konoka left the Headmaster asked Negi and Asuna to excuse themselves from the room as well and they did so going out into the hall. Once outside, Konoka asked, "I wonder what grandfather had to talk to Ser-chan about." They made a few conjectures but their questions were quickly answered by a loud yell from inside the room.

"WHAT? I NEVER BROKE MY AGREEMENT! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!" At the sound of the loud screams the three out in the hall rushed in.

"What's happening, Headmaster?" asked Negi quickly in a worried tone, noting the now fuming Ser in the corner.

Sitting back in his chair the Headmaster replied, "Well, the only reason that Seraphim was allowed to continue doing her delivery service was that she had to follow a strict set of rules that we had in place for her safety, and she acknowledged that if she were to break these rules …" The headmaster paused and looked back over at Seraphim still fuming in the corner.

"If she were to break these rules?" asked Asuna.

"If she were to break these rules she would be subject to living at Mahora Academy and living under our rules until we felt that she was able to make proper choices."

From the corner there came a loud shout, "Damn it, if you're going to punish me at least get the gender right, old man!" Konoka who had just been listening began to seemingly radiate.

"Then, does that mean," she began, "that Ser-chan is going to be living her now?" The headmaster nodded and stars appeared as Konoka threw her arms around Ser, "Yay! I finally get a little sister and she's even going to the same school as me!"

Ser managed to slink out of Konoka's grasp and walked over to Negi, then kneeled before him. "Please, Negi, if you have any kindness left in your heart at all for me, then please kill me."

Negi just smiled weakly and chuckled a little saying, "I just don't know what to say after that whole free food incident."

Curling into the fetal position on the floor with rather comical looking tears flowing down his eyes again, Ser mumbled, "Karma sucks."

* * *

So, what did you all think? I'd love to hear any comments you all have. Thanks! 


	2. Chapter 2

So, to everyone who's read this far, thank you and I hope you enjoy the story! Any comments greately appreciated.

* * *

Ser sighed, staring at the back of his hand as he lay on the bench. "Everyone thinks that what they're doing will help, but no one really understands." Then after a long inhale and exhale continued, "But then again, the more people do understand the farther away they get … So maybe it's better if they don't understand at all."

Taking his right hand that had been extended and covering his right eye Ser said to himself with a complacent smile, "I suppose this really is divine punishment for some sin I committed in a former life." Taking his hand off of his eye and looking up at the sky, up at the moon, Ser said, "Looks like it should be about three in the morning." Then, rolling over on the bench said to himself, "Good night."

* * *

Morning came around and Seraphim decided he should go talk to the headmaster, since after all he was theoretically restricted to the campus. Thinking about the events of last night, he sighed.

When he had left the headmaster's office, he had left with Asuna, Konoka, and Negi and as they talked about what to do for his rooming for the time being Konoka said, "Well, I don't think Se-chan will have any problem letting a cute little girl like Ser-chan stay in her room." For some reason, to Ser, that was just the last straw.

Now that it was the next day and he thought back on it he felt bad for yelling at Konoka and telling her to just leave him alone and then running off. After all, it wasn't really her fault that he looked so much like a girl, and that the headmaster called him "granddaughter". After all, he was fairly used to being called a girl, since it happened to him his entire life, and, given his condition, it wasn't completely untrue. However, the fact that he didn't except being a girl and was, currently, a boy remained unchanged.

With the headmaster's office in view the boy stopped and walked over to a bench to sit down and think through what he had done yesterday and what was going on. He put his right arm over his eyes covering them and sighed, saying to himself, "So now they take away the only thing I truly treasure." Then, sitting up and looking around at the campus around him said, "So, this is to be my prison?"

* * *

Classes went by as usual as Negi wondered what had happened to his friend. He resolved himself to, during lunchtime, go talk to the headmaster and inform him of the situation since he was not able to find Ser last night after he ran off.

He noticed that Konoka seemed a little out of it as well, and figured she may be brooding over what happened last night. As worried as he was about Konoka, he was more worried about Ser, though. He had met Ser once when he was staying at his uncle's house, and then again when he was at Magic School. In both times, Ser had never reacted like that before, even to the constant onslaught of jokes played at his appearance. No matter how he tried to focus on teaching he couldn't help but get the feeling out of the back of his mind that Ser had changed in the few years he hadn't seen him.

As the morning classes seemed to drag on forever the lunch bell finally rang and Negi dismissed the class to lunch when he was witness to a rather surprising scene. Before the class had left the room the door opened and of all the people to come through the door, Ser came in with some papers in his right hand and a bag in his left. "_Yo, Negi, delivery for ya from the Old Man._" Looking slightly shocked and surprised seeing Ser come into the classroom like this Negi simply nodded and took the papers that were in Ser's right hand.

Then, as he turned and looked out on the class that was currently staring at and watching the scene unfold he slowly walked up the steps of the classroom among the silent stairs to where Konoka was. The girl who had looked out of it all morning looked up at the boy, a little scared, but he just smiled back at her. "And this one's for Konoka-san from the Old Man."

He put down the bag on the table and Konoka looked inside seeing a lunch inside and a letter. At this point, the tension inside the classroom was starting to reach its exploding point as nearly all the girls in the classroom wondered what was going on. Having delivered his package Ser went to leave the classroom and attempted to look as graceful as possible as he began exiting the classroom, hoping that if he didn't make any sudden movements the pandemonium would wait to break out until he had left. However, after going through the momentary shock of seeing Ser again, and then feeling that Ser had forgiven her Konoka shouted, "Hey, Ser-chan, want me to give you a cute hair cut during lunch break?"

Looking back, Ser replied, "No thanks, I have a few deliveries to make, but I'll see you around." Turning around and beginning to finish his descent down the stairs Ser smiled and gave himself a thumbs up inside thinking he had survived and was going to make it out of the infamous 3-A classroom.

One of the girls around Konoka asked, "Hey Konoka, who is that?" 

As the eyes followed Ser and he was almost at the door, Konoka answered in an all too cheery and assured tone, "That's my little sister, Ser-chan!" Tripping over his foot, falling over, and hitting his head were Ser's first reactions as Konoka made her declaration.

As the classroom suddenly became noisy as the girls began rushing down towards the door Ser stood back up and shouted, "I TOLD YOU I'M-" but was cut off by his sense of impending doom by the flock of girls coming towards him. With a terrified look in his eyes as he was about to be mobbed, Ser turned and made a break down the hall and out of the building before any of the girls could catch him.

Staring after the now gone Ser, Asuna commented, "I think she made an even faster get away than last night." Konoka nodded in agreement and began reading through the letter that was in the bag.

"Aww, how cute!" she said as she finished reading the letter. After receiving a confused look from Asuna and now Setsuna who was sitting next to Konoka completely baffled at the current situation Konoka continued, "She wrote me an apology letter for last night."

Setsuna looked down at the letter and then over at Konoka and asked, "Um, Ojou-Sama, what exactly is going on?"

Konoka looked up from reading her letter and said, "Se-chan! I actually needed to talk to you!"

* * *

Slinking back against the wall in the headmaster's office Ser sighed, "This is so boring. I feel like I've been demoted from a delivery boy to an errand boy."

The headmaster chuckled, "Oh, don't be silly! You haven't been demoted to an errand boy at all!" He was sitting at his desk reading on of the ever increasing documents that piled up.

Perking up, Ser replied snidely, "Oh, so what am I then?"

Without any hesitation the headmaster replied, "An errand girl."

As usual a rather large book flew directly at the headmaster, who dodged it this time and went back to his reading. Ser scoffed, "This is boring, just give me a call if you need something." With that Ser got up and went to leave.

"Have fun, Seraphim-chan."

As he was walking out of the building the headmaster's office was in, Ser thought to himself 'maybe I should see if I can make deliveries for the students too, it would help kill the time.' With a nod of agreement to his plan he decided to wander around campus for a little while and, if he was lucky, find a spot to take a nap.

Looking out the window of the building he saw that Konoka, Negi, Asuna, and a girl he didn't recognize were about to come in through the entrance and deciding that he wasn't ready for a direct confrontation with Konoka at the moment he opted to hide in one of the side halls and wait for them to pass. Once they had passed he walked out of the building and began wandering around the campus.

Everywhere he went he seemed to attract gazes from the various students and it made him feel uncomfortable and he began to lose his nerve to try and do deliveries for them, figuring that it would be enough to just do it for the teachers. He sighed and tried to think of how he should talk to Konoka when he saw her again. Ser didn't want to be rude to Konoka, or to refuse the kindness of the Konoe family, but it didn't feel right and that inescapable feeling haunted him.

Finally finding a tree that he liked Ser walked over and laid down at the bottom of the tree resting his head on the base. It didn't take long for him to drift off to sleep and he wasn't sure how long he had been asleep for when he was jostled awake. As he woke up still groggy he looked at the figures that were standing above him. Konoka, Asuna, Negi and the girl he didn't recognize were all standing above him as he rolled over and said, "Five more minutes …" and attempted to go back to sleep before being jostled awake again by Asuna.

Sitting up still groggy with sleep and not really taking in the situation, Ser looked around and was met with an abrupt, "Uh-Um, Setsuna Sakurazaki!" which come from the girl he didn't recognize as she bowed her head.

Not really thinking, Ser mumbled, "Penguin-San," and promptly fell over onto Setsuna's legs and fell back asleep. Everything that witnessed the scene, save Setsuna, laughed except Setsuna who was embarrassed and panicking feeling that the introduction was completely wrecked.

Turning to Negi, Konoka asked, "Does she sleep a lot normally?"

Negi nodded, "It's really hard to wake him up, but I know what always does the trick." Negi walked over right to where Ser was napping on Setsuna and said, "Nekane-Onee-chan, what are you doing here?"

Suddenly, Ser perked up and jumped back two feet, assuming a fighting stance and looking around. However, after a moment, he noticed that Nekane was no where to be found and shouted, "Don't scare me like that Negi!"

Negi laughed and said, "Sorry, sorry! We just needed you to wake up and that's the only way I know how." 

Ser sat down and sighed, "Ugh, my head hurts from jumping up like that. What did you need to talk to me about?" Ser looked up at the girls standing there and noticed the girl that he didn't recognize earlier and asked, "Umm, excuse me, but who are you?"

Setsuna, realizing that she had a chance to make the right impression this time said, "I-I'm Setsuna Sakurazaki! Nice to meet you!" and bowed her head.

Ser stood up and replied, "My name is Seraphim Merielle, and it's a pleasure to meet you." Ser gave a curt bow and then looked over at the others and asked, "So what did you need to tell me?"

Konoka in her usually cheery tone answered, "We just finished talking with grandfather and he's decided to let you stay with Se-chan until you have another place to stay! Isn't that great, Ser-chan?"

Seraphim stood up and started nearly yelling, "I've already told you that-" before he was cut off by Setsuna.

"Um, it's a pleasure to meet Ojou-sama's little sister!" Clenching his fist, Ser began to shake and then shouted out at the top of his lungs.

"I'M NOT A GIRL!"

From the back of the group came a rather skeptical, "Prove it," by Asuna who had been quiet.

There was a rather loud, "erk" from Ser as he recoiled backwards, and then asked, "Prove it … how?"

Acting like she couldn't care less, Asuna said, "If you really were a boy then you wouldn't have any trouble taking off your shirt, would you?"

There was another "erk" as Ser recoiled backwards again, "I can't do that, though! Can it be something else? Something that doesn't involve me stripping?"

Asuna smirked, "See, if you were a boy you wouldn't care."

"Can't you just take my word for it that I'm a boy, or, even better, heed my wishes and acknowledge me as such?"

Konoka held up a finger and said, "Nope, since I really want a cute little sister like Ser-chan!"

As a last resort, Ser turned to Negi, "Negi! Please tell them that I'm a boy! Please!"

Negi looked away and replied while scratching his cheek, "I seem to remember you strictly telling me before not to mention the issues involving your gender … and I can't exactly say their wrong, can I?"

Crumpling down into his little ball Ser replied, "Traitor!"


	3. Chapter 3

So, third chapter is up, and thanks very much for the reveiws! If you have any ideas, suggestions, or comments for the story I'd love to hear them! Thanks and Enjoy )

* * *

As Negi took a seat in the headmaster's office, the headmaster asked, "So, what is it you wanted to talk with me about Negi-Sensei?"

Negi had come in with one question in mind, but seeing the headmaster's current state he had another. "Um, Headmaster, what happened to your face?" Although he could guess who the culprit was, Negi was rather curious about the large red mark on the side of the headmaster's head.

Chuckling, the headmaster replied, "It seems that I offended Seraphim again."

Taking the opportunity of the name coming up, Negi asked, "Headmaster, you know that Seraphim isn't really a girl, so why don't you just adopt him as a boy? Wouldn't that take all of his objections from the adoption?"

The headmaster stopped reading whatever he was reading and looked up at Negi, with his typical jolly face on, and replied, "Actually that would create even more problems. It is that child's own fault that I call them 'granddaughter' and not 'grandson'."

"Why is that?" asked Negi.

The headmaster leaned back in his chair and asked, "Negi-sensei, how much do you know about Seraphim?" He had on his same jolly, carefree expression, but Negi felt a deeper undertone in what he was asking.

Thinking back on what he had been told by Seraphim and the second hand information he picked up Negi replied, "Well, I know that he lived in a place called Eika before I met him, but not too much when I really think about it."

The headmaster then replied, while looking down at his papers, "Then let's leave the reason simply as the conversation we had about adopting him."

Looking slightly confused, Negi asked, "What conversation was that?"

* * *

Finishing up with his deliveries for the day, Ser began his search for a spot to nap at. While the deliveries weren't as fun as when he would make trips through the wilds, across continents or even oceans, he couldn't help but think it was better than wasting away in a classroom like the students here.

Standing up he sighed as he looked down at his clothes and then, feeling embarrassed hit the nearest tree with his fist. "What the hell was that old man thinking, trying to make me wear that?" After a brief moment, however, he shook the memory out of his head.

A slight wind blew through the campus and it knocked Seraphim's hair into his eyes. This reminded him that he needed to cut his hair before Konoka got a hold of it, shuddering at the thought of letting her give him a hair cut. With a sigh, he said to himself, "Konoka would probably cut my hair to make it look even more girly."

He continued walking around campus talking to himself, "This is all that old geezer's fault, if he had kept his big mouth shut then this wouldn't have happened." With a sigh, he said, "I wonder what Konoka really thinks of me, I mean, she acts really nice and sweet … and evil … but I feel like it's all a front."

"It isn't." Ser stopped momentarily, then whirled around. 

"S-S-Setsuna!" Ser's heart nearly stopped, "W-What are you doing here?"

"Konoka-ojou-sama was looking for you, so I was helping with the search. She wanted to meet with you today after school, but you didn't come to our classroom today so she couldn't tell you."

"Uh-Um … When were you listening from?" Ser began to back away from Setsuna a little bit, nervous at the answer.

Setsuna smiled and said, "The point about the headmaster making you wear something." There was a brief pause and then Setsuna added, "And just so you know, Konoka-ojou-sama isn't just putting on a front, she really is a very kind and accepting person."

Ser sighed, then said, "Please don't mention anything I said to Konoka." There was a slight pause, then Ser added, "Especially the part about the headmaster, I don't want him giving her more ideas."

Setsuna nodded and said, "She should be at her room, waiting for us." Ser nodded and began following her back to the dorms. After a moment, Setsuna asked, "Can I ask you a few questions that I've been sort of curious about since last night?"

Looking a little skeptical, Seraphim replied, "You can ask, but I can't guarantee I can answer all of them." As he responded Seraphim didn't look directly at Setsuna, instead he simply stared straight ahead.

Smiling a little, Setsuna asked, "Alright then, I'll start with something easy. Last night when you got to our dorm, instead of sleeping in a bed or a futon, why did you just curl up in a blanket?"

With a smirk, Ser replied, "That's a fairly easy one. Where I grew up when I was really young there weren't any futons or beds, and everyone that raised me sleep curled up, so it's sort of second nature."

Curious, Setsuna asked, "Where did you grow up?"

In a matter of fact tone, Ser replied, "A place called Eika."

Hearing the name, Setsuna thought for a moment and then said, "The name sounds familiar but I can't quite place it." Then after a moment said, "Ok then, next question. In all seriousness, are you a boy or a girl?" There was an awkwardness in the air now.

Ser looked up at the sky and stretched as they walked, "In all seriousness, huh?" He thought for a moment and then said, "You're asking a really complex question, you know." After the slightly odd look he got from Setsuna, Ser continued to explain, "I guess it depends on how you look at the question."

Visibly confused by the response, Setsuna asked, "What do you mean, 'how you look at the question'?"

Heaving a rather large sigh, Ser replied, "Well, depending on your view of my situation I could be both, or I could be neither, or I could simply be a boy or a girl. It all depends on your view of the situation." They walked on for a moment in silence, as Ser debated whether or not to add anything and Setsuna attempted to think of a reply.

However, unable to come up with a reply and figuring that Ser would rather not talk about this subject anymore, Setsuna continued, "Ok then, I'll settle for that answer for the time being, on to the next question." There was a moment of silence as Ser looked over at Setsuna waiting for the next question. "Knowing that you are friends with Negi, Headmaster-sensei, and with several of the teachers on campus, is it safe to assume that you are a mage?"

Setsuna looked slightly nervous when she asked the question, and Ser figured for good reason. He immediately suppressed the instinct to tease Setsuna and ask 'what's a mage?' since he thought that the joke would not go over well. After a few moments of contemplation Ser answered, "Although I never studied at a school, like Negi, that is a fairly safe assumption to make." Then, after a moment added, "I don't use magic like Negi does, though, since I practice a different type of magic."

Looking slightly curious, Setsuna asked, "What type of magic is that?"

Puffing out his chest with pride, Ser responded, "Die Regierung der Hölle." Setsuna jumped back instinctively and reached down for where her sword was. The smile that was on her face had turned to a scowl, but before she could respond Ser broke down laughing. "Sorry, sorry!" he said in between gasps as Setsuna suddenly realized that she had just made a fool of herself in the middle of campus in front of a bunch of students.

Embarassed she shouted at Ser, "That wasn't a funny joke!" and continued to chase him until they were outside the dorms where they both stopped for breath. After a moment however, Setsuna walked over and hit Ser on the head saying, "That wasn't funny. You shouldn't joke about studying a type of magic like that." 

Puffing up his face, Ser replied, "Yeah, yeah, I know." Then looking over at the dorms Ser asked, "Was there anything else you needed to ask me?"

Setsuna thought for a moment, then asked in a questioning tone, "What did the headmaster make you wear?"

The color drained from Ser's face momentarily, then came back. The only difference was that when the color came back it was beet red as he shouted, "I DIDN'T WEAR ANYTHING! I SAID TRIED! TRY-ED!" Setsuna laughed.

"Alright then, what did he try to make you wear?" Looking down at the ground Ser mumbled something to himself. "What was that?"

Looking up Ser said, "It's none of your business! That old geezer's gone crazy!" Setsuna just laughed as they went into the dormitory to meet up with Konoka.

* * *

Negi sighed as he entered the dormitory area after his meeting with the headmaster. He was carrying a large package the headmaster had asked him to give to Seraphim and could only guess that by delivery this package he would be putting himself right in the middle of the 'Headmaster VS. Seraphim' battle.

As he approached his dorm room he heard loud noises and hastily hurried in, only to discover that the scene was just about what one would imagine. In the room was Konoka, Asuna, Setsuna, Nodoka, Yue, and clinging desperately to the ceiling was Ser. As soon as Negi stepped in the room Ser shouted, "Negi! Perfect timing! Save me!"

Looking at the scene with an apathetic sigh, Negi asked, "What's going on here?"

Yue who was sitting the corner of the room drinking her juice box replied, "In simple terms, Konoka was trying to give Seraphim-chan a hair cut."

Looking at the scenario where Asuna was currently poking the ceiling bound child with a pole trying to get him to come down Negi asked, "And in non-simple terms?"

From the ceiling came an, "Evil! Pure evil I tell you!" Walking over to the middle of the room and putting down the box Negi sat down at the table where Konoka had gathered all the necessary tools for Seraphim's hair cut. "Negi, please tell them I'm not a girl and so I don't need a 'cute' haircut!"

Looking up at the ceiling Negi replied, "I was talking with the headmaster today, and I found out the source of your disagreement." There was a pause in the room as everyone looked over and focuses their attention on Negi. "In the end, isn't it your fault that the headmaster only acknowledges you as a girl?"

There was a moment of silence as Ser seemed to be trudging up old memories trying to figure out what Negi was talking about, and then suddenly figuring out what he meant he dropped from the ceiling and landing on the floor next to Negi and said in a loud voice, "That old geezer's clever word play doesn't count!"

Standing up and looking Ser in the eyes Negi said, "You said it yourself!" Then after a moment added, "And it's a little too late to take it back!"

Confused, Konoka asked, "What did Ser-chan say, Negi?'

Look over at Seraphim and then back at Konoka, Negi replied, "He said that he couldn't accept the adoption originally, and didn't need to be adopted since he was a strong and resourceful boy." As Negi took a pause to breath, Ser took over the explanation.

"At this point the old man said, 'so, if you were a cute, frail little girl you wouldn't have any objection to the adoption then?' Not thinking ahead into the future I responded, 'if I was a girl I wouldn't object to being adopted.' Immediately after that I realized my mistake." There was a pause and silence in the room.

At this point Konoka asked, "So you're really not a girl?"

Instead of Ser's usual outburst Negi answered, "think of Ser as being half girl and half boy." Through Ser's vehement protest Negi added, "He can be whichever he wants, and NORMALLY he chooses to be a boy."

After a moment's pause Ser shouted, "It was for free food! Free food!"

Looking over at Ser, Konoka said, "Hmmm …so if the boy Ser-chan is this cute, then the girl Ser-chan …" There was another short pause here.

This short pause was, however, quickly followed by a "No way! Forget about it!" However the silence continued as the stairs began to build up, everyone in the room intent on seeing this spectacle. The pressure was beginning to get to Ser until he finally shouted, "Ok, ok! If I show you once, will you leave me alone?"

Enthusiastically the girls nodded or made some sign of agree and Ser sighed as he took a step backwards so that he had a little room. "Just so you know, I really hate doing this." He took both hands and clasped them together in front of his chest. Immediately following this Ser was enveloped in a light that resembled a rainbow made with only silver colors. As the procress went on, his hair grew long and his arms became thinner. His face changed slightly, becoming a little more rounded. Finally, his chest became a little larger while his stomach became a little smaller. The light faded away and Ser looked out at the gasping faces staring at the now female version of himself. "Happy?"

With a loud "kyaa!" Konoka rushed in and gave Ser a hug saying, "You're an even cuter sister than before!" She ran her hand through Seraphim's hair, it had grown out all the way down to where her kneecaps were. "Can I braid your hair?"

With a loud, and rather embarrassed, "No!" Ser took a step back from Konoka and said, "I'm changing back now."

Latching onto Ser, Konoka said, "Nooo! Wait, please!"

About this time Negi remembered the package that the headmaster had given him, "Oh, Ser, the headmaster asked me to deliver that package to you."

Looking over at the ominous brown box that Negi had brought in Ser asked, "Do you know what's in it?" Negi shook his head no and Ser replied, "Then I don't want it, 'cause if I know that old man…"

Asuna, who had started opening the box interrupted Ser and asked, "So you have a work uniform now?" 

With her face bright red, Ser shouted, "OVER MY DEAD BODY!"

Konoka looked in the box that Asuna had opened and her eyes began to sparkle at the contents. Inside the box was a knee length, fluffy, red dress and a large red bow. On top of the dress was a card saying 'You forgot this at my office, Seraphim-chan.' Looking at the scene taking place in the room following this, Negi seemed to recall a similar thing happening in the past and laughed to himself remembering the first time he met Ser.

* * *

- This is litterally "Hell's Reign" in German.

Hope you enjoyed the third chapter .


	4. Chapter 4

This chapter is a little short than the others, and has at times a bit more of a serious tone than its predecessors. None the less, I hope you enjoy it!

* * *

It had been a little over a week since Seraphim's arrival at Mahora Academy, and he was getting used to living on the campus little by little. Now, he finally found a night where he could spend the whole night catching up with Negi, or rather letting Negi catch up with him. He listened to the story of Negi graduating from magic school and coming to Mahora, the battle with Evangeline, the spring trip, and even that he currently had a challenge with Evangeline over training him.

Whenever would Negi would ask about what Ser had been up to since Negi had last seen him, he would tell him about one or two of the deliveries he had made. With the two of them finally caught up on the last few years, Negi began to ask Ser for advice in his challenge.

Apparently Negi had asked for wizard training from Evangeline and Chinese Martial Arts training from Ku Fei, and in response Evangeline had offered Negi a challenge to land one hit on Chachamaru. Ser listened to the problem and then said with a sigh, "You just love getting into trouble, don't you Negi?"

In a high pitch, flustered voice Negi shouted, "You're the last person I want to hear that from!"

Laughing Ser replied, "Well, I don't really know how I can help you." Then after a moment he said, "Oh, actually I can do this!" Ser stood up cleared his throat and said, "Fight on, Negi!"

Head hung low, Negi replied, "Gee, thanks a lot." Then after picking his head back up Negi asked, "Are you planning on training some while you're at Mahora?"

Ser shook his head, "I'm more of a lover than a fighter." Then after a moment added, "besides, I think the old man would pop a stitch even if it's just practice."

Looking slightly confused Negi asked, "Why's that?"

Smiling his devious smile, Ser replied, "That's – a – secret!" knowing that it would frustrate Negi.

Negi sighed, "Typical."

* * *

Negi's fervent training was paying off as Ser could definitely tell one morning as he watched Negi sparring with Ku Fei. Laying back in the tree he looked around the scene, Negi was training with Ku Fei, Asuna and Setsuna were training together, there was a girl name Makie there was well as a few that would occasionally come and go.

They had been training for a long period of time and had decided to take a break to eat, which is exactly what Ser was waiting for. Hoping down from his tree Ser walked over to where the trainees and trainers were gathering to have a snack. As he approached and sat down to eat with them he was, however, confronted by Asuna who asked, "Hey, why do you get to eat if you're not training?"

Looking up at Asuna and then yawning and stretching as he lay down on his back Ser replied, "I have all the training I need, thank you very much."

"Do you know a style of martial arts?" asked Setsuna.

Staring up at the sky Ser replied, "I know a style of hand to hand combat and a style of swordsmanship. I'm prohibited from using the sword style, though."

Curious, Asuna asked, "What styles do you know?"

With a sigh, Ser sat up and answered, "I know a style called 'Lunar Fang', which I learned in the area I grew up in. I'm not allowed to talk about the style of swordsmanship I was taught, though."

Gazing intently at Ser, Asuna replied, "You don't look like a master of some martial arts style." Then, turning to Ku Fei asked, "Have you heard of that style before?"

Neither Ku Fei nor Setsuna had heard of it before and Negi had only heard it from Ser before. As peppy and upbeat as a high school girl could be, Makie, who Ser barely knew asked, "Can you show us some? Please! It sounds really neat!"

Sitting up and looking at the girl, Ser replied, "I'd rather not, after all, if the headmaster found out I was he'd yell at me again."

Looking even more interested than Makie, Ku Fei asked, "You strong one, yes?"

Looking slightly confused Ser replied, "I don't think I'm weak."

Looking excited Ku Fei asked, "You spare with me, please? I like to fight strong ones!"

Sighing as Ser looked around at the group that was all eagerly awaiting his reply, he answered, "Fine, fine," and stood up. "We'll have a one round match, the winner being the first to score a clean hit on the other, alright?"

Nodding in agreement, Ku Fei went over to where she had been training with Negi and began preparing for the match. Ser turned to Setsuna, "Can you be the judge for the match, Setsuna-san?"

With a nod, Setsuna got up and walked over, along with the rest of the group, to the area where they were going to hold the match. "This will be a one round match, with the victor being the first to make clear contact, ready?" Ku Fei stepped back into her fighting stance. Ser assumed a rather odd looking stance. His right side was towards Ku Fei, with his right arm dropped down to his side and his left hand up around his face. "Begin when ready."

"Ku-san, when you attack, I'm going to end this with one shot." Ku Fei crept slowly forward towards Ser.

"Oh-ho, you think awfully high of yourself," retorted Ku, "but we will see when match is over who is winner!" With that, she charged in at Ser.

Ser waited until the last possible moment, after Ku had already launched her attack when he began his combination. "Crescent Stroke." Ser moved his body at a downward diagonal suddenly, leaving only the hand up until it was the last thing to be dragged down as Ku Fei's attack brushed across the hand hitting thin air. Then, using the hand he had just jerked down to grab Ku's outstretched hand and pull to knock her off balance, and then using it to brace himself on the ground, Ser used his other hand to come at an upward angle at Ku's torso.

The Chinese martial artist had underestimated her opponent and overextended and then been knocked off balance was caught off guard by the high speed attack and nearly instantly after the contact was made jumped backwards as her opponent took longer to recover. However, Setsuna called the match to a halt since Ser had made contact. Ku looked down and sighed saying, "was good technique, but trick like that no work twice."

"I'm well aware, which is why I asked for a one round match. Hand to hand combat isn't my forte, since I'm nearly all speed and no power." Then after a moment, he added, "And since I'm not all that fast to start with I suppose I'm primarily just tricks."

Nodding, Ku Fei then added, "You also lack killing intent, and while may make it harder to tell what you're doing, it takes away from power." Putting her hand down on her side Ku said, "That strike no hurt at all."

With a sigh Ser responded, "That's why I'm not a fighter."

* * *

As Ser watched Negi and Chachamaru, who he had just found out was a robot before the fight, go head to head and watched Negi get repelled time after time, Ser sighed.

Somewhere, deep inside his heart, in the part of him that he always tried to hide, he wished he was out. He wished he was the one trading blows with Chachamaru without having to hold. He wished that he didn't have to justify with a life threatening reason every time he wanted to fight.

Lost in thought watching the match, Konoka snuck up on him. "Ser-chan, aren't you going to help cheer Negi-kun on?" Snapping back into reality, Ser nodded and absentmindedly followed Konoka over to where all the girls were standing and watching the match. "Aren't you going to change?" asked Konoka when they arrived.

Looking at the group of girls around them, Ser sighed and said in a low voice so only Konoka could hear him, "First off, I already told you that I don't just change forms for no reason, and second there are girls here who don't know about magic. It would sort of be a dead giveaway if I was suddenly cloak in grey light and my hair grew and my body changed, don't you think?"

Sighing, Konoka said, "You're no fun, Ser-chan!"

Then sighing himself, Ser said, "You're too easy going, Konoka-san." Konoka suddenly gave a big huff and turned away from Ser. Surprised and confused, Ser asked, "What's wrong?" Getting no response, Ser apologized, "Sorry if I offended you, Konok-san."

With another huff Konoka turned around and pointed a finger in Ser's face, "It's not 'Konoka-san', it's 'Onee-san' or "Nee-chan', got it?" As Konoka said the words she dragged them out and put emphasis on them like a child would and it really embarrassed Ser to the point that his face was bright red again.

"Can't I stick with Konoka-san?"

"No, and if you do I'll have a special surprise waiting for my cute little sister." At this point in the conversation, Ser reinforced his mental note that like Negi's sister, when she wanted to Konoka could be absolutely terrifying. However, Ser's strong point was not his ability to go along with others.

With a smirk, Seraphim replied, "I feel bad for your little sister then, Konoka-san."

With a kind, yet ominously evil looking smile, Konoka replied, "Don't worry, I'm sure she'll love the present her Onee-san has for her."

* * *

So, what did you all think? As always, any reveiws greatly appreciated! 


	5. Chapter 5

Fifth chapter is up, and Konoka's plan is revealed! Is it diabolical? Is it something that should terrify Ser as it does, or is he blowing things out of proportion?

Enjoy

* * *

The door to the headmaster's room burst open as Ser came running in, having finished his deliveries for the day. "Old man, I need a favor!"

Moving his piece on the chessboard the headmaster replied, "You can't leave campus."

Stepping back with an "erk" sound, Seraphim asked, "Why not?! It's a real emergency!"

Making another move on the chessboard the old man replied, "it's not like you incurred Konoka's wrath because you couldn't do something simple that she asked of you and now you're trying to hide until it all blows over, is it?"

With another "erk", Ser took another step back. "N-No! Of c-course not! It has nothing what so ever to deal with the impending doom I'm feeling from Konoka-san. It's … uhh… a delivery! Yeah, I need to make a delivery!"

Looking up from his game, the headmaster said, "Request denied."

"Gah!" Looking over at the game of chess the headmaster was playing he walked over and said, "Hey, little girl, can you help me convince the old man?'

Looking up from the chess board, the girl replied, "Whose a little girl?"

Scratching his head, Ser replied, "You are a girl right?"

With a vein beginning to bulge on the girl's head she said, "Yes, what of it?"

"Well," continued Ser, "since you're still in primary school, that makes you a little girl, doesn't it?"

With a single swift movement Evangeline went from playing her game of chess to strangling Ser. "That joke wasn't even funny the first time you used it!"

Choking, Ser gasped, "Waah! Help me Old Man, I'm being assaulted by a kindergartener!"

The headmaster simply made another move as there was a chorus of "DIE!"s from Evangeline.

* * *

Rubbing his now red neck which still hurt after Evangeline's assault, Ser sighed and stood down below the headmaster's window staring back up to the room where the headmaster and Evangeline were continuing their game of chess. Closing his eyes and dropped his head, Ser said, "I can see the headline now, 'Kind and Genius Delivery Boy Strangled to Death by Psychotic, Enraged Kindergartener Over An Unrequited Love."

A large blunt object flew through the window, nailing Ser right on the head. Now hunched down covering his aching head with both hands, Evangeline shouted down at him, "I heard that, you egotistical bastard! Come up here and say it again, I dare you!"

* * *

The next morning was a Sunday morning and there were no classes, so Konoka had made her plans for today. Setsuna was heading towards the spot where she had been told that they would meet up, with the still sleeping Ser on her back. Setsuna sighed, she had tried everything she could think of to wake him up, but it all proved futile and ended up with him clinging to her saying, "Penguin-san" so she decided to just carry him to the meeting spot.

When she arrived the rest of the crew was already there. Arriving she apologized saying, "Sorry, I couldn't wake him up, so I brought him asleep."

Looking at the sleeping boy Konoka asked, "Does he sleep in those clothes too?"

"I haven't seen him change clothes at all since he arrived, come to think of it."

Feeling the white shirt Ser was wearing Konoka said, "It doesn't feel or look dirty though." Then after a moment said, "maybe it's magic!" Then, as she looked at the still peacefully sleeping Ser, said, "Ser-chan! Ser-chan! It's time to wake up!" Getting no response she poked him on the cheek.

Fidgeting and giggling a little Ser replied in a hazy, sleepy tone, "That tickles Penguin-san" and wrapped his arms tighter around Setsuna, who was now looking very embarrassed.

Laughing, Konoka said, "Well, we can do it with Ser-chan asleep too." She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a piece of paper that had a magical hexagram on it, "Eva-chan stopped by last night and gave this to me saying I should use it on Ser." 

Looking back at the rest of the group she had broken off from when she came running over to meet them, Konoka shouted back to the rest of the group, "Se-chan and I are going to go get Ser-chan changed, we'll be back in a few!"

* * *

Slowly waking up, Ser's blurry vision began to come into focus revealing Konoka's face looking down. "Are you awake now, Ser-chan?"

A slight breeze blew, sending chills through Ser's body which finished the waking up procress. "It's cold. And drafty …" there was a short pause before Ser jumped up from the bench where Konoka was. "Drafty?!"

Looking down Ser not only noticed a change in clothing, but also a change in gender. Taking only half a moment to gauge the situation, Ser crumpled into her little ball of self pity. "Ser-chan, you make not want to sit like that." After Seraphim gave Konoka a confused look she continued, "If you sit like that people can see your panties."

Looking down at the skirt and realizing that what Konoka said was true Ser shot straight up, "Konoka-san! Give me back my clothes!" The smile faded from Konoka's face and she reached into her pocket and took out a ribbon.

As Seraphim watched on confused Konoka walked over to Ser, moved behind her, and began tying the ribbon into her hair. When she realized what was going on Ser tried to move away but was to slow, since Konoka already had a hold of her hair. After the ribbon was tied into a neatly tied bow in Ser's hair, Konoka said, "Every time you use the wrong name I'm going to put another accessory on, and don't think that I don't have enough."

Once Konoka finished and stepped away, Ser went to untie and pull out the ribbon only to have Konoka look back and say, "And I wouldn't try taking them off, if you know what's good for you, Ser-chan." Ser once again saw the evil, terrifying side of Konoka and decided that it would probably be in her best interest to play along.

Running her hand down along the sides of body, Ser sighed. There was no mistake that somehow they had made Ser change, even though magic like that should be way out of Konoka's, or even Negi's, league. "So, what's going on, anyways?" Ser looked around, he didn't recognize where they were at all. He also didn't really recognize some of the girls with them even though they were Negi's students.

"We're going shopping today, since it's a day off from classes," said Konoka as she and Ser began making their way up to catch up with the rest of the group.

In a skeptical tone, Seraphim asked, "And I'm here because..."

Smiling, Konoka said, "Because you're going to spend the entire day with us, of course." As they were about to catch up with the rest of the group, Ser took one more look downward.

A tank top and a skirt had seemingly magically replaced her other clothes and she said in a rather downtrodden voice, "I look ridiculous."

Konoka laughed, "No, you look cute!" As they approached the group from Mahora she grabbed Ser's hand and escorted her into the group. The stares from the girls felt like cold, sharp pricks as they approached, and what followed was even worse, in Ser's perspective at least.

Gathering around her, all the girls that Ser didn't know seemed to feel compelled to tell her how cute she looked as well as make comments about what else would look really cute on her. Seraphim's face was turning red from embarrassment as the girls continued to swarm around her, some touching her hair and asking questions and some touching various other places.

The big question, however, was how her hair got so long suddenly, to which Konoka promptly answered that, "It's always been this long she just normally keeps it all bundled up so you can't tell." Then, after another round of outburst Konoka said, "We should probably get going to our first stop, then."

Looking over at Konoka, away from the girls that had flocked around her, Seraphim asked, "Where's that?"

Walking over and grabbing Ser's hand, Konoka said, "Well, when Se-chan and I were changing you earlier we found something rather surprising." Seraphim's heart skipped a beat, if they had changed his clothes then they had seen the markings on her chest and stomach. "Can you guess where were going based on that, Ser-chan?" Seraphim shook her head, did she think it was a tattoo or something and want to get it removed? The various thoughts filled Seraphim's head until Konoka finished by saying, "We're going to get you a bra, silly."

There was a moment of pause, as the girls who had been swarming around Ser stopped momentarily and looked at the now pale white Seraphim. With a calm motion, Haruna, who had been in the group of girls around Ser, pulled the front of her tank top out and then said in a rather nonchalant tone, "Hmm, that probably would be a good place to start."

* * *

Sitting down the still spaced out Seraphim in front of one of the dressing rooms, Konoka and the other girls went off to pick out various bras for her to try on, leaving on Setsuna, who had no desire to participate in this, behind. "Even Negi abandoned me," mused Ser in a depressed tone.

"Well," started Setsuna, "it's not like this is exactly the place for a young boy to be." She looked around at all the various types of underwear around the shop, a little embarrassed herself. "And, do you really want Negi to see you like this?"

Hanging her head as a tear rolled down her eye, Ser replied, "No."

At this point the first member of the group arrived at the dressing room, and was none other Haruna. "Here's the first one," she said as she held up a lacy, red bra and matching panties.

The redness of the bra was then matched by the redness in Ser's face as she shouted, "No way! Vetoed! Not happening!"

Haruna than began to back Ser into a corner verbally and trick her into accepting. The only thing that ended up saving Ser was when Nodoka showed up with a plain, white bra, that Ser hastily accepted and slid into the theoretical safety of the dressing room with. There were a few moments inside, and then the door of the dressing room opened, as a confused Ser poked her head out and asked the three girls, "This may sound like a stupid question, but how do you put this on?"

Grabbing the set that she brought earlier, Haruna said, "Here, let me show you."

Setsuna, however, stopped her by stepping in front and saying, "Here, let me show you, Seraphim-chan." She lightly pushed Ser back into the dressing and closed the door on Haruna who sighed at the missed chance. Once the door was closed, Setsuna looked down at Ser and sighed, saying in a low voice, "You need to be careful with that symbol on your stomach. If someone like Haruna saw it …"

Taking off her shirt and putting it on the little bench in the dressing room, Ser asked, "Can you give me a little help, Setsuna-san?" Setsuna gave her a confused look and Ser continued, "I can temporarily hide the mark but I need someone's help." Nodding, Setsuna put down the bra and held Ser's hand as she then instructed her too. Ser muttered a few words and the marks on her stomach faded away. "Done."

Taking one last look at where the mark had been, Setsuna said, "I won't force you to tell me what that is, but if you want to talk I'll listen. I'm sure Konoka-Ojou-sama feels the same way." She then picked up the bra and said, "However, since you're now going to have to be in that form more often, you really need a bra."

Looking back up Ser asked, "Why would I need to stay in this form more now?"

"Well," began Setsuna looking away sheepishly, "a lot of girls in the class that don't know about magic now have seen that you're a girl." After getting seeing the shocked face of Ser she asked, "You hadn't realized that yet?"

Ser slowly shook her head.

* * *

As the group met back up, Negi looked over at his friend who looked both physically and mentally drained. "I suppose it wouldn't help you to know that there's still half the day left, would it?" There was no verbal response, just Ser shaking her head back and forth. They found a place to eat and Negi said he would go get a table with Ser while the girls got their food.

The two of them began walking around the food court trying to find a place big enough for the group to sit together at, as Negi asked, "So, how bad was it?" seeing the bad that Ser was carrying.

Looking up and over at Negi, Ser asked, "How would you have liked it if they went bra shopping for you?"

Negi chuckled half heartedly, "That bad?"

Reaching her finger down the front of her tank top and pulling on the bra underneath, Ser responded, "It's uncomfortable and embarrassing. And why are you teaching a class full of raunchy middle school girls?!"

From Ser's last question Negi suddenly got the idea of just what it was like, and embarrassed and unable to stop himself from laughing, Negi turned away. After a moment, he responded, "So it was just like with Nekane-onee-san?"

Visibly shuddering, Ser responded, "Thankfully this wasn't as bad as that time. I don't think I could survive doing something that like that again." Then after a moment, he said, "Can I get your help with something, Negi?"

Looking over, Negi asked, "What's that?"

"I'm planning on telling Konoka and Setsuna why I'm part girl, like I told you. However, I can't do that in front of this group, so can you drag the rest of the group somewhere else so I can have a few moments of privacy to tell them?" 

Thinking for a moment, Negi said, "Sure, I have a good idea how to get everyone else away." There was a pause in the conversation as they found a few tables close together where their group could fit. "You're telling them pretty soon, aren't you?"

Sighing as she sat down, Seraphim said, "I suppose, but they're kind people so I think that if I tell them, but don't explain the reasons behind it, they'll understand."

* * *

The lunch had been a lot of fun, and when it finally was drawing to an end Negi got up and said, "Race you all to the Ferris wheel!" and took off running. There was a momentary pause, then all the girls began following Negi.

"Wait, Konoka-san, Setsuna-san." The two girls stopped and looked back at Ser. In the momentary pause that followed, Konoka reached into her pocket, and taking the hint Ser said, "I mean Onee-san! Onee-san!" Konoka withdrew her hand from her pocket with a smile on her face.

"What's wrong, Ser-chan?"

Breathing in deeply, Ser replied, "Can I talk to you two for a moment?"

Looking at each other, Setsuna and Konoka sat down at the table that Ser was sitting at. "What is it, Ser-chan?"

After a moment, Ser said, "Well, first, how did you change me into a girl when I was in my male form?"

"Ah," said Konoka as she reached into her back pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. "Eva-chan gave this to me, and said to use it on you. When I put it on your forehead for a moment you changed into the girl form."

"Of course," sighed Ser, "I should have realized that the only person capable of doing something this would be The Doll Master."

Confused, Setsuna asked, "I know that 'The Doll Master' is one of Evangeline-san's nicknames, but what does that have to do with this?"

Closing her eyes temporarily, Ser responded, "Let me tell you why I have both a girl and boy body, and why I can change between them."

Setsuna and Konoka both sat up straight when they heard this and after a moment, Ser began her monologue. "When I was a baby, newly born, I was used in a certain magical ritual. In the ritual there was also a Nishin-Aute. A Nishin-Aute is a type of doll, but a very special type. Instead of being made out of the various elements and compounds, it is made out of living cells, which is why their also called 'Living Dolls'. The only things that the dolls are missing that humans have are consciousness and souls.

"When they were performing the ritual there was a … mistake. In the end, in order to make that the ritual was successful, they had to graft the doll's and my body together, combining them into one. Since I have both bodies, I can switch between them to whichever one I want to use, even though I feel more at home in the male body which was originally mine.

"That's why when I answered you before, Setsuna, that I could be a boy, or a girl, or neither, or either. As far as I know, a boy has never been combined with a female Nishin-Aute before, so I don't have any references to off of. When I thought about it though, I came to the conclusion that even though it wasn't originally mine, this body does belong to me, and so it is part of who I am even if I don't want it to be. However, I'm gradually getting sort of used to it … actually, not at all, I don't see that happening for along time."

There was a pause as Ser stopped talking, only to add after a brief moment, "I'm not looking for your sympathy or anything like that, though. I just felt that you should know."

Konoka got up from where she was seated across from Ser and began moving her hands around above his head. Cocking her head to the side, Ser asked, "What are you doing?"

Smiling as she looked down, Konoka replied, "I'm looking for your strings. I figured if you really were a doll or a puppet, you'd have them so I could make you give me a hug."

* * *

Well, what do you all think? 


	6. Chapter 6

Sixth chapter up.  Not as long as the last, but a little bit of Ser's story begins to come together, for those who can figure it out.  Enjoy =)

Standing on the sidelines, Seraphim watched as Evangeline began shouting orders at Negi. "Invoke the contracts at maximum power for 180 seconds. Once you've done that, shoot 99 arrows of light into the sky." Watching the magic flow into the four girls who Negi had contracts with, Ser sighed. Looking over at the Ser, who was currently in his male form, Evangeline shouted, "If you're going to come to these practices, why not make yourself useful?"

Looking up with eye brows raised, Ser gave a thumbs up and shouted, "Fight on, Playboy!" Negi's concentration broke as he nearly toppled over and then shouted back at Ser.

"I'm not a playboy!"

"Oh? Says the boy with four partners at age ten, eh?"

Throwing a large blunt object that nailed Ser right on the side of the head, Evangeline shouted, "I said help, not distract him, idiot!" Ser waved his hand as he went back to laying down on his back and Negi went back to the drill. Soon, however, another blunt object came flying at Ser, "Damn it, get up and go over to where Negi is and get training."

Still recovering from the impact Ser slowly got up, mumbled a few words under his breath and walked over to where Negi was, just as he began firing off the arrows. There was a momentary jubilation in the group, as they saw the arrows light up the sky like fireworks, and then Negi collapsed from exhaustion. While Negi recovered for a moment, Eva turned to Ser, "Do just like Negi did and fire 99 arrows into the northern sky where the barrier is."

"Yeah, yeah …" Ser began his incantation and a fire began building in his hand. Then, an arrow shot off into the northern sky. About a second later another arrow shot off, and a second after that another and another until he had shot off nine arrows. "How's that?"

Vein bulging in her forward, fist shaking, Eva shouted, "Are you even ing trying?"

"There's an old saying, 'Waste not, Want not', I just figured I'd apply it to using magic," replied Ser in a calm and collected tone.

"That's it," started Eva as she took a piece of paper out of her pocket. She held it up and Ser recognized the symbol on the paper, "Shoot the damn arrows or I'll embed this into your skull."

After a moment of debate, Ser got up and mumbled to himself, "Damn kindergarteners, always so full of themselves." He began his incantation and the fire began gather in his hand. As he drew his hand up towards the sky, the flame in his hand had, at the base, turned black. From the angle though, only Evangeline could tell since the arrows where red.

With the arrows shot off Sol looked down at his hand and then said, "Say, Eva, got a Band-Aid?" Looking at him with a slightly cocked head, Sol then held up his hand and said, "I accidentally burned myself."

The vein came back out on Eva's forehead, "Useless doesn't even begin to describe you!"

The only thing that saved the argument from continuing further was the shouts coming from Negi and Asuna. As Ser looked over, Asuna stormed off in a huff, and Negi looked as though he was about to cry. With a sigh, Ser walked over and said, "Trouble in paradise, Pimp-san?"

Flailing around, Negi shouted, "Now's not the time for that, I made Asuna-san made at me!" Then, continuing to flail around, Negi said, "What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?"

Walking over and feeding off the misfortune between Negi and Asuna, Evangeline said, "Well, we can let this conclude the training for the day. However, I'd like you to stop by my house on the way back, Negi." Looking over at Konoka, Eva added, "You too, Konoka-san." Then, looking at Ser, said, "You can come by your own free will or I can drag your dead carcass there."

A drop of sweat rolled down Ser's face, "And here I thought we were friends."

* * *

With all three of the mages that Eva asked to come sitting at the table, Eva began at the heart of the matter, starting with Negi. "In order to decide the direction of your training from now on I'm going to let you choose your own combat style."

"Combat … style?" asked Negi.

"Yes," answered Eva, "From the school trip I have thought of two possible paths you could pursue. Let me simplify things for you. The first is the 'wizard' style. In this style you'll leave defense primarily up to your disciples and rain hell on your enemies from the back lines. It's a stable style.

"The other style is the magical swordsman. Through training you would attune your body so that you can fight on the front lines with your disciples. Your spells would have an emphasis on speed. It's a freeform style capable of change."

"Wizard or Magic Swordsman …" Negi mused to himself.

"There's advantages and disadvantages to each, but for training purposes we'll be dividing it between the two."

Thinking for a moment, Negi asked, "May I ask a question?"

"What is it?"

"What style did the Thousand Master use?"

"I thought you ask that," said Eva with a grin. "As you probably saw during my fight with the white haired boy, when you get stronger the differences cease to matter. However, if I had to put him in a category, he would have been a magic swordsman. In fact, he was so powerful that he didn't have any disciples."

Negi got the look of 'I knew it' in his eyes, as Eva turned away from Negi to Konoka next. "Konoka, I have a message for you from Eishun. Now that you know the truth, if you wish it he would like me to teach you magic. Certainly, with your power, you could aim to become a Magister Magi."

"Magister Magi? Isn't that what Negi is aiming to become?"

"Yes, with your power you could be useful to the world. It's something to give some thought to." Finally, Eva turned to the last of the invited guests. "Seraphim … we'll go talk in private." Eva began walking down the stairs with Ser following.

Once they were downstairs, away from everyone else Eva sat down at a table and Ser sat across from her. "When I talked to the Old Man about it, he said that he didn't want me to give you training. He's still afraid that you can't control the power and another incident like at May City will happen." There was a pause, then Eva said, "However, from my perspective it's even worse to have you unable to control that power at all and just be a walking time bomb."

Ser looked down at his burned hand, there was a bandage over it covering the burn. "It's not really my power, so I can't control it."

"Don't be such a pansy," Eva said. "It's in your body, you can bring it out, and you've proven before that you can manipulate it. It's yours as far as anyone else is concerned." Then after a moment said, "I'll train you when I'm not training Negi. I know a place we can use that will be empty except for us, so if you do lose control it won't be as bad."

Ser leaned back in his seat and sighed, "Alright, I suppose I'd have to confront the problem eventually …" The two got up and walked back into the room with the others.

As they came into the scene of everyone in the room trying to help Negi with his problem, Konoka tuned to Ser. "Is Eva-chan going to be training you, too, Ser-chan?"

Ser nodded, "Yeah, but don't tell the headmaster. It's a secret, 'kay?"

Konoka nodded and then asked, "So, what kind of style are you going to train?"

Looking over at Eva, Ser asked, "Oh yeah, what styles would you recommend for me, Eva?"

Without any hesitation Eva replied, "Kamikaze."

Ser nearly fell over then shouted, "Bite me, Psycho Chibi!"

Laughing, Eva then said, "Well, if I had to answer seriously …" she stopped and paused for a moment to think, "maybe a rogue style where you use stealth and other magic to get into close range unnoticed and then execute deadly melee attacks.

"With your Lunar magic you'd also make good support, if you were to focus on that type of magic in particular."

"Lunar magic?" asked Konoka.

Ser nodded, "I've studied two kinds of magic during my various exploits. The first is Lunar magic, I use a few spells from it on a day to day basis, like 'Lunar Upkeep'. That's the one that keeps my clothes and body clean. Lunar magic specializes in barriers and other support magic and has very few attack spells, most of which can only be used at night."

"What was the other kind of magic you studied?" asked Konoka.

After a moment of Ser not saying anything, Eva said, "It's called Die Regierung der Hölle. It's a very powerful style of offensive magic, but at the same time partly for that reason it's frowned upon since throughout history many powerful and psychotic mages have used to for mass destruction." Looking over at Ser who was fidgeting a little, Eva added, "It seems he met someone who taught it to him before he really knew the true destructive power behind it."

"So, is it an evil magic then?" asked Konoka confused.

"There's no such thing as innately 'evil magic', it's all how you use the magic. If he choose to refine and work on it, Ser could probably become a very powerful wizard using Die Regierung der Hölle, as well as use it to help people in dangerous situations." Then after a moment added, "He'd just need a lot of training so he wouldn't lose control of the complicated spells."

Standing up and walking over to the group, Setsuna said, "You had told me earlier that you were just joking when you said you studied that."

Scratching his head, Ser replied, "Well, you seemed to be really on edge about it, and I didn't really want you to slice me in half."

"I don't think you should use magic like that," said Setsuna. "It's not even been three years since the last time a mage using it lost control and wreaked havoc on May city. It's too dangerous."

Sol looked down and broke eye contact from Setsuna. Eva simply watched to see how the boy would respond. In a low, weak sounding voice, Ser said, "It's because it's dangerous that it has to be Die Regierung der Hölle. If it were a tame magic I could never control it."

Eva smiled, "I see you've grown up in the two years I haven't seen you. Stopped hanging onto idealism?"

Raising his head with a smile, Ser replied, "Yeah, a certain psychotic kindergartener beat it out me when I told her I couldn't accept her love."

Thumps, bonks, and crashes echoed through the house along with assorted versions of the word "DIE!" Watching the scene, Konoka clasped both her hands together and said, "Rest in peace, Ser-chan."

- German for "Hell's Reign"

So, what did you all think?  Would love to hear any opinions.


	7. Chapter 7

So, here comes chapter 7. Enjoy.

"Ser-chan! Ser-chan!" Sleeping silently below a tree, there was no response from Seraphim as Konoka approached. "Seeerrrrr-chaaan," said Konoka as he started shaking Ser hoping to wake her up. "Do you want to come with us to the beach?" Konoka continued shaking the sleeping child until she fell forward into her arms. There was a soft murmur that Konoka couldn't make out. Picking up Ser by putting one of her arms over her shoulder, Konoka said, "I'll take that as a yes."

* * *

The worse part about being a heavy sleeper, or going into a coma as was more the case with Seraphim, is that from time to time, you'd wake up in the strangest places, wearing the strangest things. This just so happened to be one of those times. As Seraphim's eyes opened and she groggily sat up stretching she looked around at her surroundings.

It wasn't a room she recognized from the parts of Mahora she had been in. She had been lying on a small bench in the room, and there was a mirror on the wall directly across from her, along with a door to her right. Even half asleep, it only took Ser one look in the mirror to figure out who had moved her, though. With a loud echoing shout, Ser yelled, "KONOKA!"

Immediately after she yelled, Ser began looking around for the clothes that she had worn to sleep. The door opened a few moments later and Konoka appeared with Setsuna and asked, "Ser-chan, are you awake now?"

Spinning around, Ser asked, "What's going on?! And where are my clothes?!"

With a smile, Konoka said, "We came to the beach. I asked you earlier and you said you wanted to come. And those are your clothes, there a present from grandfather and me." Then after a moment, she added, "And you look so cute too!"

Face burning bright red, Ser replied, "Why do I … have to wear … this … when you're wearing … that?" Ser looked down at her stomach, "Besides, the markings revealed completely like this." She looked down at the ground, covering her stomach with her left hand and looked up as Setsuna grabbed her right hand.

"You can suppress the mark, can't you?" There was a pause, and then a nod. A smile began to come back to Ser's face as she chanted a few words and the mark vanished. "How long will that suppress it for?"

"Usually around seven to eight hours." Ser smiled a little, glad that Setsuna had remembered that she could suppress the mark. To Ser, it meant that Setsuna was trying to understand her, which made her happy until she caught her own reflection in the mirror and then lost it again and shouted, "Wait a minute dammit, why am I wearing this?"

Konoka looked up and down at Ser. She was wearing a two piece white bathing suit, with a semi clear purple skirt wrapped around her waist. "Ah, I forgot something!" said Konoka as she dashed out the door.

Sighing, Ser replied, "I hope it's a coat. A really long coat."

Coincidentally, Ser couldn't have been more wrong as Konoka walked in with a pink ribbon that she tied into Ser's hand as she silently shed tears, realizing it was futile to attempt to go against Konoka.

As they exited what Ser now recognized as a dressing room and walked down the beach, Ser's face grew redder and redder as she managed to attract more and more stares from the various girls in 3-A. '_If this could get any worse, I'm not sure how.'_ Right on queue, as seemed to be the case with most events involving girls from class 3-A, Makie ran up and grabbed Ser's hand and began dragging her over to an open spot on the beach asked, "Ser-chan, do you know how to hula dance?"

Being dragged, Ser replied, "I'm going to guess there isn't an answer that get's me out of this, is there?"

Shaking her head, Makie replied, "Nope!" and reaching the open spot began her instructions as to how Ser should properly hula dance.

* * *

Finally, getting a moment of peace away from the attention that Makie had created for her, Ser sighed as she sat down in a chair on the beach. She looked over at the group of girls who had joined in on the hula and smiled a little. She hadn't thought about it before, but there really were a lot of cute girls in class 3-A … even if nearly all of them did think of Ser only as the twelve year old little sister of Konoka. Then after a moment thought to herself, _'that may not be an entirely bad thing, either.' _

Closing her eyes as lay on the chair, a cool shadow eclipsed the sunlight that Ser had been bathing in. "Excuse me, Seraphim-san, but can I have a word with you?" Opening her eyes, Ser saw Setsuna standing over her looking at the group of girls who were currently dancing, looking particularly at Konoka who had joined the group. "I'd like to have a word with you in private, away from Konoka-ojou-sama."

Getting up, Ser replied, "That's fine with me." Setsuna lead the way out into the woods, away from where everyone else was as the two slipped away unnoticed. Once out of auditory range from the girls on the beach, Ser asked, "So is this a confession of love?"

Setsuna's face went red, "Not in the least!"

"So you do like Konoka-nee-san then …" mused Ser.

Face turning even redder, Setsuna shouted, "Where did you get that idea from?!"

Tapping her lips with her finger thoughtfully, Ser replied a moment later, "I guess the correct question would be where I didn't get that idea from, eh?"

Flailing around as she replied, Setsuna shouted, "Stop saying random things!" Her face was bright red and then, no longer able to contain it, Ser began laughing.

"Sorry, sorry. You're just fun to tease is all." After Setsuna had calmed down, Ser asked, "So, what did you want to talk to me about?"

Setsuna stopped walking, and with her back still turned to Ser began talking. "I was curious about some of the things you've said, and so I decided to do some research on some of the various things you've said about yourself. However, for every question I seem to find an answer to, I find several more." Setsuna turned around to face Seraphim, and looked down at her with a stern look.

"For starters, the place you sited as your hometown, Eika. I looked it up trying to remember where I had heard the name before, only to realize that it was Eika Forest, or 'The Eternal Forest'. There are no towns that I was able to find with the name Eika, meaning you either lied about where you grew up, or for some odd reason you were accepted in The Eternal Forest. Coupled with the fact the you know Lunar magic, however limited your knowledge of it is, it does seem to be possible, though completely improbable.

"And then there's the issue with Die Regierung der Hölle. When you originally said that you studied it, you told me you were just kidding. Now, even Eva is saying that you have studied it, and she didn't sound like she was kidding. The fact that you lied when you said you were just kidding makes me wonder if I can trust what you said about Eika, either. This is all completely ignoring the fact that you don't just learn magic without realizing its destructive potential, which I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt on.

"Finally, when I was curious about the markings on your stomach, I decided to do a background check on your family to see if, by learning about the Merielle family, I could learn what kind of ritual it was. However, as you probably know, when I searched the archives, no matter where I searched, there were no Merielles. None of this makes any sense, at all. It feels like I'm trying to figure out the background of someone who doesn't actually exist." There was a short pause as Setsuna caught her breath and, realizing that the last thing that she said was a little harsh, held her tongue momentarily.

Staring down at the ground, Ser replied, "Someone that doesn't exist, huh?" There was a moment went Setsuna went to apologize, but Ser interrupted her. "One day, I'll tell you, and Konoka, and Negi, and everyone else who's been there to help me. Until then, though, please stop trying to figure it out, because you'll only create even more misunderstandings and problems."

As she now looked at the downtrodden and depressed child, Setsuna felt guild over doing what she did by looking into Ser's past and speaking to her the way that she did. "I'm sorry," Setsuna said with a slight bow.

Ser just sort of nodded, and then asked, "Can you take me to Negi's room?"

Looking a little confused, Setsuna nodded and asked, "Why?" as she began leading the way to the young teacher's room.

"I want to borrow something from him."

* * *

The first day of the beach vacation was coming to an end, and Ako Izumi figured that the perfect way to end the day was to take a stroll around the beach by herself. Since the beach resort was on an island, if she continued walking in one direction she would end up back where she started, and after the high energy day, a walk seemed like a calming idea.

As she paced down the beach, she thought of various things. Anything and everything from the events of the day to being dumped by her sempai went through her head and left with the gentle crash of the waves. A nearly full bright moon was up in the sky, and it provided her with enough light to see ahead without any trouble.

Ako had been walking for likely an hour when, off in the distance she heard a low sound. The voice was too soft to recognize, so Ako decided to use the woods to hide herself and figure out who was out here on the other side of the island before she approached them. As she slid off into the woods, she attempted not to make any sound as she moved through the trees.

It was only a few moments until she saw the person. As Ako looked out into the ocean, she saw a child with short white hair standing ankle deep in water. Her first impulse was to shout out, figuring that it was Seraphim. However, looking at the scene before her, she felt herself unable too. '_Is that really Seraphim-chan?'_

The haircut was the same as when Ako had first seen Seraphim, in the classroom when she had made a delivery to Negi and Konoka. However, this child was different, primarily for the reason that this child did have the girlish figure that Seraphim had. Thinking that the child had to be a boy, Ako wanted to ask who it was, but the scene in front of her still left her wordless.

The child with white hair was standing ankle deep in the water, wearing nothing but a pair of swimming trunks. Facing out to sea, the child was staring up at the moon and the moon's glow seemed to be enveloping the child as they continued the low hum or words that Ako didn't understand. The child's left hand looked to be folded up and touching his chest, while there was a long stick in the child's right.

As the child began to speak louder, the words still sounded like a random assortment of sounds thrown together, but strange things began to happen around the child. The stick that was clutched in the child's right hand began to repel the water around it, pushing the water away in all directions and created little waves. The amount of moonlight around the child seemed to increase, as the moon's reflection on the ocean became brighter, and brighter.

Finally, the serenity of the landscape was dashed as the child made a sudden movement, twisting around in a circular motion, while bringing the stick up in a rising motion. As he went through his motions the child shouted, "Umarmung des Todes, Vorpal Blade!" What looked like a blast of air shot off from the stick, completely shattering it as it departed. The wave of air cut through the water, parting it until about a hundred yards out it seemingly exploded, shooting a giant pillar of water into the air.

Scared, and surprised, by the sudden turn in events, Ako let out a high pitched screech and jumped backwards, only to hit her head on a tree branch and blacked out.

* * *

Ser stood at the edge of the beach, ankle deep in the water staring the moon. He smiled to himself, he had come all the way to the other end of the island where none of the girls were to practice some of his magic. With the moon so large in the sky, it gave a feeling of warmth to Ser as he moved the stick he had picked up down so that the tip was in the water. Slowly, he breathed deep breaths in and out, going through the incantation in his head to make sure he remembered the entire thing.

Finally, after several minutes, Ser began the incantation while his mind began going through all the things to remember. _'Feel the moonlight. Let it envelope you and empower you. Feel it's reflection off of the water, let it warm your skin. Ask the moon for more light, to shine brighter.'_ He remembered his teachers words as he was originally learning Lunar magic. However, right now he was only using Lunar magic to support the spell he was casting, to keep it under control.

Ser then thought of his other teacher's lecture. _'When you're performing spells from the Umarmun des Todes branch, you have to take in the essence of life from everything around you. Feel that power of life come into you and then shape it.'_ Ser began to feel the power from the moon and from the waves seeping into him, and he began to shape it using the incantation and his own will.

He channeled it down the stick he was holding in right hand, until it was coating the stick, and then made it swirl. First, Seraphim simply made it swirl around the stick, then as the incantation continued on, he made the swirl spiral downwards as well. Gradually, as Ser increased the volume of the incantation, he increased the amount of energy and the speed until finally when he felt that he could no longer keep control of the spell he ended the incantation. He stepped out with his left foot and then did a little turn, bringing the stick with the energy up in a crescent arc as he shouted, "Umarmun des Todes, Vorpal Blade!"

The energy shot off, completely disintegrating the part of the stick that it had been wrapped around. The shot went in a straight line, nearly precisely where Ser had intended it to go, however the energy exploded creating a tower of water much earlier than Ser had intended. Even if the shot hadn't been quite what he was aiming for, Ser was pleased. At least until he heard a loud, high pitched scream from behind him.

Hearing the scream, a chill ran down Seraphim's spine. "Please let it be Negi, please let it be Negi," Ser said over and over again as he slowly turned around. After he had turned around, Ser saw a light blue haired girl who was now lying on the ground, not moving.

Walking over to the girl, Ser looked at her, waved his hand over her eyes, and then realized that she must have accidentally knocked herself out when she hit the now broken tree branch behind her. Thinking quickly, Ser ran over to where he had left the swimming suit Konoka had given him. Chanting a few words quickly, Ser changed bodies and began dressing herself.

As she changed, she thought to herself _'It's ok, It's ok, I can find a way out of this. I just need to stay calm and think.'_ Now fully changed, Ser hid the trunks that he had borrowed from Negi and walked back over to where the girl had been laying. Looking down at her, Ser picked her up by putting one of the girl's arms over her shoulder and carried her out to the beach area. Once there, Ser put the girl lying down on her back and then Ser put her head on her lap.

While Ser sat there with the girls head resting on her lap, she decided upon the story to tell the girl. Still waiting for the girl to wake up, Ser looked at the girl trying to remember her name. She had met the girl a few times, but didn't really know who she was, although Ser thought her name was Ako. After about a half an hour the girl began to stir.

Opening her eyes, the first thing the girl saw was Ser's face directly above her, smiling down at her. "Good morning," said Ser in as cheerful a tone as she could muster. The girl immediately shot up, taking her head out of Ser's lap, and then clutched her head where she had hit it. "Is something wrong?" asked Ser.

The girl looked over at Ser for a moment, "You're Seraphim-chan, right?"

Trying to keep from looking worried, Seraphim replied, "Y-Yes, why do you as?" A bead of sweat rolled down the side of Ser's face as she thought, _'Oh man, she figured it out, didn't she?'_

After a moment, the girl asked in a rather confused tone still clutching the side of her head, "What happened?"

Deciding to try and go for a simple lie instead of a complex one, Ser replied, "Well, I was out taking a walk around the beach when I saw you lying over in the forest. It looked like you had hit your head so I decided to wait for you until you woke up to make sure you were okay." Ser's heart was beating fast and loud as she thought, _'Come on, please buy that story. Please.'_

Looking a little skeptical and a little confused, the girl mumbled, "So that boy with the white hair was just a dream…" After a moment, though she looked up at Ser and said, "Oh, thank you for waiting for me. I'm Ako Izumi, I don't think we've really talked before."

Internally sighing in relief, Ser responded, "I'm Seraphim Merielle. It's a pleasure to meet you." Standing up, Ser asked, "Can you stand now?" With a nod, Ako stood up and Ser said, "It's pretty late. We should probably head back to the rooms."

The two girls walked off to the dorms in an awkward silence, until Ako broke the silence asking, "So you're Konoka's little siter?"

"Mmmm, sort of. Her family's offered to adopt me, but I haven't given them a word one way or the other. It's sort of funny that I just met Konoka and she already treats me just like a little sister." After another pause, Seraphim said, "Everyone in 3-A is really nice to me, even if they're overly eccentric at times, even if I feel there are times when they're just trying to make me feel uncomfortable."

Ako giggled a little, "It's because you're so cute. You have really smooth skin, you're hair is smooth and straight, you're figures nearly perfect for your age, and you always have funny reactions to everything. From time to time, you give off this feeling like you don't know how to act like a girl, and it just makes you even cuter. It's almost like you're the little sister of everyone in 3-A, not just Konoka."

Ser sighed, "I don't think I could take that. There's too many personalities in 3-A." Ako laughed and so did Ser, the silence was broken and Ser was able to relax a little as she talked with Ako while heading back to the lodging.

* * *

Night had passed and it was the next morning as Ser desperately made a search around until she found who she was looking for, "Setsuna-san! Setsuna-san!" Setsuna, who was with Konoka and Asuna, looked over at Ser who was motioning for her to come over. With a confused shrug to Asuna and Konoka, Setsuna walked over to Ser.

"What's wrong?"

Breathly deeply once to gather her courage, Ser closed her eyes and replied while speaking as fast as she could, "I need your help. I was out training last night on the other side of the island, and Ako-san saw me. I had to lie to her and I made her think it was just a dream, but I'm not sure whether or not she still suspects something, so can you keep an eye out for me just in case?"

Opening her eyes and looking up, Ser saw that Setsuna was staring with disbelief at Ser. After a moment, she slowly picked up her left hand and then slowly dragged it down her face. From behind Ser, came an all to recognizable voice, "What was this about lying to Ako-san?"

Without turning around, Ser went rigid. "She isn't-"

"She is."

"I didn't-"

"You did."

Side stepping and then turning around, Ser bowed to Setsuna, then to Ako, and said, "If you'll excuse me, I need to find a corner to go cry in."

* * *

One of my longer chapters, but I hope you enjoyed it! Any comments you can make are appreciated.


	8. Chapter 8

Hey guys, it's been a while since I've updated, but here it is. It's a little shorter than other chapters and I'm not completly content with it, but this was the best version of the chapter. Oh, and the character introduced at the end of the chapter is not my character, it belongs to the author tribladeofchaos. Hope you enjoy the chapter.

The boat rocked from side to side as the two occupants of the room stared at each other, both looking for the words to say. Finally, the blue haired girl said, "I waited until the ride back to Mahora, like you said. So, can you explain what's going on now?"

The white haired girl looked down, breaking eye contact. She closed and took a deep breath. "First, I want you to know something." The girl opened her eyes. "With what you know right now, you can go back to your regular life and forget that this ever happened. If you really want to know, though, I will tell you. However, what I'm offering you isn't some fairytale and, to be honest, isn't even something you are a part of. I'm not offering to tell you about some television show where everything always turns out alright in the end. Knowing this, do you still want to hear about it?" Ser's eyes were cold, staring right at Ako. Ako could tell that she was serious, and she was scared to hear what Ser had to say.

The two of them sat in silence, Ser staring directly at Ako waiting for a reply, and Ako trying to decide what to do. "I think … I may have been wrong. When I found out that what I saw in that dream had really taken place, I thought for some reason that I was special. But, after all, I think I'm just a regular girl who witnessed something incredible. All day I was excited, thinking of the possibility of magic … and of learning magic. But now … now that I've heard you talk about it, it doesn't sound like a very cheerful world like I had imagined." There was a pause in Ako's speech, so Ser took the chance to add something.

"There's nothing wrong with being normal." Ako looked up at Ser, "In fact, some people would give anything they had just to be normal."

Adding nothing more, Ser looked out the window of the room. The ocean was passing by as the ship sailed on. There was another pause, then Ako started again, "While you say that there's nothing wrong with being normal, I feel like now that I know that this world exists I want to be a part of it. Even though you talk about how scary it is, I'm sure that it has its fun parts too." There was another pause, then Ako said, "So, please, please tell me about it."

With a slow nod of the head, Ser said, "Alright, I'll tell you then. Magic exists in this world and I can use it." There was a pause as Ako and Ser stared at each other with a serious expression on their face.

The pause, however, continued for nearly a minute until Ako asked, "And?"

Breaking eye contact and standing up, Ser scratched her head saying, "Um, don't tell anyone?"

A slightly annoyed expression came over Ako's face as she grabbed Ser's shirt as she started to leave, "I had already more or less figured that part out, based on the context of this conversation. Can you tell me something more specific, like who that boy I saw on the beach was?"

"Oh, you hadn't figured that out yet?" Giving him a strange look, Ako shook her head, "That was me in my male form. I'm half boy half girl." There was an awkward pause and Ser asked, "Is that a problem?"

Looking a little embarrassed, Ako asked, "Can I see your male form again?" Shrugging her shoulders, Ser placed her hands in front of her and drew a deep breath then began muttering something under her breath. Silver hues enveloped her as her hair grew short and her body changed slightly.

In a slightly lower voice, Ser asked, "Is this all you want to see?" There was a slight pause and then Ako began cracking up. Now confused, Ser asked, "Something wrong?"

Pointing at Ser, Ako said, "I've never seen a boy wearing a tank top and a shirt skirt before." There were several annoyed noises from Ser as he went to change back. However, Ako stopped him from changing back. "Sorry, sorry, it's just funny."

Ser sat down across from Ako sighing and said, "Listen, while this all seems like fun and games, the magic world is really dangerous, especially for people who can't use magic. In fact, the reason I'm at the academy is because I got in too many dangerous situations, so it's better if you act like you don't know that magic exists."

Looking a little downtrodden, Ako responded, "Is there any way I can learn magic?"

"Maybe," Ser paused and thought for a moment, "but I couldn't teach you. It really would be a lot better for you to go back to your old life, without magic." There was another silence in the room as the boat rocked back and forth and sighing Ser said, "However, I recognize that may be a little hard, if you ever just have to talk to someone about it or anything like that, visit Evangeline's house."

"Eva-chan? Is she part of the magic world?"

Nodding, Ser replied, "Yes, sadly she was kicked out of her house at a young age and now lives at the academy."

Surprised to hear that, Ako asked, "Why was she kicked out of her house?"

Lying, as usual when it came to his interactions with Evangeline, Ser replied, "Well, she comes from a very noble family and when her parents found out that she doesn't like boys and just girls, they had a fit. It's a really sad story, but now that Eva's here at Mahora she doesn't have to worry about her parents interfering in her love life."

There was another awkward air in the room as Ako asked, "So … Eva's … one of those girls ….?"

Looking confused, Ser asked, "You mean she hasn't come on to you yet? She must be holding herself back, but I'd be careful if I were you."

* * *

On top of the deck of the ship, Negi was looking out over the balcony at the sea passing by when Ser snuck up behind him. Ser had changed back into her female form and stood beside Negi for a moment until she said, "I pulled a Negi."

Confused, Negi looked over at Ser and asked, "What's do you mean, you pulled a 'Negi'?"

Gazing out over the sea, Ser responded, "I accidentally let someone in on the secret of magic and was then unable to cover it up."

"Who?" Negi asked surprised as he turned to face Ser. Then before Ser could answer added, "Wait a minute! Why's that called a Negi?!"

Smirking, Ser responded, "Ako, and because you're the reason like half the class knows." There was a short pause and an "irk" from Negi as he realized he couldn't argue the point.

* * *

As the boat came ashore and Mahora's class of 3-A began departing from the class representative's cruise, a figure that Ser didn't recognize was waiting at the bottom of the boarding ramp talking with Negi. Walking up to the silver haired, teenage boy who was talking with Negi, Ser asked, "Who's this, Negi?"

Looking back over at Ser, Negi said, "This is Zach." Then looking over at Zach and motioning to Ser, Negi said, "And this is Ser."

The two looked at each other for a moment, and then Zach said, "I teach chemistry here, as well as help out Negi in English. It's nice to meet you." Zach extended a hand to shake but Ser simply looked over at Negi.

"I don't recognize him. Is he new?"

Nodding, Negi said, "He came to Mahora when I did, and he hasn't been here because he had to take Chamo back to Wales for me." As if on the queue, the ermine snuck out from Negi's robe and wave as Ser shuddered.

"Can we send them both back?"

Reaching over, Zach hit Ser lightly on the head. "Watch what you say, little girl. I've just been on a very long trip with a very annoying companion, and I'm not in the mood to be playing around."

Sticking out her tongue, Ser said, "You're just a bully!" to which Zack bonked Ser on the head again. This time Ser made a loud sound akin to crying, at which Konoka came storming over.

"Zach-sensei, don't bully Ser-chan!" Wrapping her arm around Ser and guiding her away, Konoka and Ser departed.

Looking over at Negi, Zach said, "I don't like her already. Is she a new member to the class?"

Shaking his head, Negi replied, "No, he's just a delivery boy for the academy. He's a little hard to deal with sometimes, and even though it seems like he doesn't like you very much, he's usually a good person."

There was a pause in which Zach contemplated his words, and then asked, "He?" Negi nodded to which Zach replied, "Great, a cross dresser, just what I wanted to have to deal with."

"It's not really like that," started Negi. "He's half girl because his body was joint with a female dolls body when he was little in a magic ritual. He just plays the part of a female here because Konoka-san wanted a younger sister instead of a younger brother."

Looking even more confused, Zach asked, "Wait, that kid is Konoka-san's little sister?"

Realizing he was only making the situation worse and he couldn't accurately explain the entire situation with all the students around, Negi said, "How about we talk later about it?" Zach nodded and looked back to wear the white haired girl was interacting with the other girls.

Looking back at Negi with half an eye still on Ser, Zach asked, "Can you answer me one thing Negi?" Negi nodded and Zach continued "Why do I sense impending doom from that girl?"

Chuckling grimly, Negi responded, "You get used to it."

* * *

So, any opinions?


End file.
